After Mr. Wansacz formed the new majority in the commissioners office with Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Wansacz interfered in the hiring of a full-time public defender, a change in hiring policy Mr. O'Brien allowed for some reason, a now-retired Mr. Prejean charged in an interview with The Times-Tribune.

"Quite frankly, when Corey O'Brien says that there's been no change in the hiring policies between January 2008 and now, that is pants-on-fire false," he said.

As majority commissioners, Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Washo never interfered, he said.

"Their only involvement in four years was when they knew we were soliciting a secretary or a lawyer, they would ask that a person be interviewed," Mr. Prejean said. "I never did hire any of the people they asked us to interview."

In a statement, county Chief of Staff Maria Elkins said all three current commissioners got involved in the process because they "became aware of issues in the public defenders' office that needed to be looked into."

County officials declined to be more specific.

Historically big deal

Hiring is always a huge deal in a county where government jobs historically have been thought to be handed out based on political connections rather than strictly on merit.

Two weeks ago, Mr. O'Brien said little about the interview process has changed since Mr. Wansacz joined him in the commissioners office with the addition of an academic background check the only change.

In an interview before Mr. Prejean spoke out, Mr. O'Brien said department heads still hold the hiring power, but the hiring of public defenders is an exception because the defense lawyers represent the county in court every day.

Mr. O'Brien said he could not recall if he and Mr. Washo interviewed prospective public defenders. Mr. Prejean and Mr. Washo said they did not. Mr. Washo declined to comment further.

Asked to comment on Mr. Prejean's charges this week, Mr. O'Brien declined to comment on whether the hiring policy changed.

"I wish Sid well in his retirement," he said.

He declined to elaborate.

Efforts to reach Mr. Wansacz were unsuccessful.

"Mr. Prejean's resignation (retirement) was accepted early due to his conduct which was unbecoming of a public official," Mr. Wansacz said in a statement issued by Ms. Elkins.

Controversial end

Mr. Prejean is embroiled in some controversy. Last month, the commissioners accepted his resignation and request for retirement two weeks earlier than his requested Jan. 31 retirement date. The request was accepted amid an internal investigation of his behavior during an unspecified May 18 "incident" at the commissioners office.

Mr. Prejean, who was hired in 2008 to lead the public defender's office, has declined to discuss that incident, but hinted at what might have transpired during The Times-Tribune interview.

Mr. Prejean said he needed to fill an opening for a full-time public defender, advertised for candidates, interviewed prospects and chose a candidate whose name he sent to the commissioners for approval.

Instead of gaining instant approval as before, he and Mr. Wansacz went "face to face," Mr. Prejean said.

"It became, 'Pick your top three and then we'll interview them.' And I said, 'Who's we?' 'The commissioners.' And I said something to the effect of, 'Go kiss my (expletive), I don't have top three, I got one,'â" he said.

"My objection (to Mr. Wansacz) was, 'What do you know about picking criminal defense lawyers?' And he said, 'I'm a great judge of character.' I said, 'Well, are you saying I'm not a great judge of character?' I said, 'I've been supervising people for 30 years.' I said, 'I spent 30 years in the Air Force and I've been supervising people since you were 9. So I think I'm a pretty good judge of character.'â"

Mr. Wansacz, he said, repeated his assertion.

"He said, 'I'm a good judge of character and I was elected' - I remember this specifically - 'to fix the financial mess left behind by the failed financial decisions of the Washo-O'Brien administration.' And I said, 'I remember in your campaign you and Corey were feeding each other potato salad at a picnic like newlyweds.' So our relationship went off the rails at that point.'"

Prejean relents

After three or four weeks, Mr. Prejean relented and sent up a list of four candidates who were interviewed jointly by him, Ms. Elkins and attorney Larry Moran, the county general counsel for litigation.

Because each panel member picked a different candidate, the commissioners re-interviewed all three candidates, Ms. Elkins said.

The commissioners set up the panel "to conduct the second round of interviews and insure the integrity of the process," Ms. Elkins wrote in her statement. "The top candidate was then chosen, and had never met the commissioners prior to the interview."

"He was choice 1A, but he was not my first choice," Mr. Prejean said. "He's an outstanding young attorney, been doing a great job"

Retirement announced

At 62 and approaching retirement age, Mr. Prejean said he lacked the appetite for any further fights and decided to give notice in August that he would retire effective Jan. 31, 2013.

"The system that I had been used to for four years of the Washo-O'Brien administration was I'm the subject matter expert in the public defender's office. And if I have an opening, I should hire the best attorney available," Mr. Prejean said. "Then, it just changed with the election of Commissioner Wansacz."

As he realized during the fall that the commissioners planned to cut his budget by $30,000, he offered to take a pay cut that large and rescinded his retirement letter, but the commissioners accepted it in mid-January.

On Mr. Prejean's account, Mr. O'Brien would only say, "I'm not so sure his facts are accurate" and denied politics was involved with the hiring.

"We didn't even know the person hired for the job," he said.

At first, Ms. Elkins confirmed the commissioners' hiring process changed between administrations, but said she had no input on the change and did not know why it happened.

She later issued the statement about the new majority commissioners getting involved because of the unspecified "issues in the public defenders' office" that arose at the same time as the full-time public defender opening.

Evaluating office

Ms. Elkins said Mr. Moran, former Chief Public Defender Gerard Karam and county solicitor Don Frederickson are now conducting an "on-going evaluation of the office" because of "concerns raised under Sid's tenure."

She was not specific about concerns, but Mr. Moran said they involve whether the office should represent indigent clients in custody cases, a decades-old practice that preceded Mr. Prejean. The practice is not authorized by the state law governing public defenders and could leave the county liable if a public defender is sued for improperly representing a custody client, he said.

Noting that concern predated his tenure, Mr. Prejean called the idea that there were "issues" or "concerns" about his office "poppycock."

"I think one might logically expect that if the commissioners have concerns, they would address those concerns with the person in charge, and they never did," Mr. Prejean said.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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